Japan court upholds acquittal of 3 in Fukushima nuclear disaster case

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Tokyo’s top court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of three executives of a power company in a case related to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan.

The Tokyo High Court upheld a decision issued in 2019 by a district court in the Japanese capital that ruled the executives “could not have predicted the massive tsunami that crippled the power plant and led to core meltdowns.”

The court issued the ruling in the case of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) former Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 82, besides Ichiro Takekuro, 76, and Sakae Muto, 72, both former vice presidents, according to Kyodo News.

The trio was accused of “failing to prevent” the 2011 disaster at the nuclear plant in northeastern Japan.

However, the High Court ruling “cleared the defendants of professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries.”

The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi plant on the Pacific coast was flooded by tsunami waves exceeding 10 meters (32 feet) triggered by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11, 2011, causing the reactor cooling systems to lose power supply.

It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chornobyl incident.​​​​​​​